Illinois Baseball Report

There’s been an interesting but probably not surprising development in the case to bring a minor league team to Champaign-Urbana.

Among other points, investors are saying that the sale of beer would be critical to the financial success of the team. 
From the AP artcle via WBBM:
“It is a critical piece,” (National Sports Services’ Matt) Perry [...]

Filed under: Former Illini in the pros on September 29th, 2007 | Leave a Comment! »

Ben Reeser coming off a lights-out summer, started for the Orange team.
I stopped by the first game of University of Illinois’ Orange and Blue series.  Stop by The Baseball Zealot photo gallery and see the photos I took.

2B Ryan Hastings takes third on a fly ball.
If you want to see the Illini in [...]

Filed under: Fall Happenings on September 28th, 2007 | Leave a Comment! »

Big news in the local sports section today… a group is in negotiations with the University of Illinois to get the use of Illinois Field for a minor league team.  Very exciting news, indeed.
From the News-Gazette:
“We’re always interested in looking for new markets for a professional baseball franchise,” Matt Perry, chief executive officer of Denver-based [...]

Filed under: Former Illini in the pros on September 25th, 2007 | Leave a Comment! »

The schedule for Illini’s Orange and Blue series has mostly been set.  
Sept 28 – 4pm
Sept 29 – 10am
Sept 30 – 10am
Oct 5 – 4pm
Oct 6 – TBA
This split squad series is a good chance to see the Illinois team in action! 
In other Illini news, I had already reported on Joey Bonadonna’s Rawlings Silver Glove award [...]

Filed under: Awards on September 24th, 2007 | Leave a Comment! »

 Congrats are in order for University of Illinois’ Joe Bonadonna.  He was awarded the Rawlings Silver Glove for his play at second base while playing second base for the Duluth Huskies in the Northwoods League. 
In addition to his fine work with the glove, Bonadonna broke the league record with an incredible 75 stolen bases. 
Great work, [...]

Filed under: Awards, Summer League on September 18th, 2007 | Leave a Comment! »

Throughout the summer the Illini baseball program has been keeping us informed of what’s was happening in the player’s own words with Summer Diamond Notes.  I found them very useful and entertaining.
Now it turns out they will continue the series with Fall Diamond Notes.  Presumably, they will detail how things are going in fall practice [...]

Filed under: Media on September 6th, 2007 | Leave a Comment! »